Net neutrality | Green cabs | Pier 40 deal

May 16, 2014

The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 Thursday to ban broadband providers from blocking or slowing websites, while also leaving them the option to cut deals with content companies such as Google, Amazon and Facebook looking for faster Web lanes to customers. A final FCC decision on Net neutrality is expected later this year. [Crain’s New York Business]

Plus: Todd Krizelman, CEO of MediaRadar, wrote an open letter proposing ways to better connect the de Blasio administration and the city’s tech community. [VentureBeat]

The de Blasio administration said Thursday it would hold off on issuing permits for 6,000 more of the green cabs introduced in 2013 under then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg to speed travel to areas of the city where yellow taxis rarely go. One of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s biggest campaign contributors was the yellow-cab industry. [The New York Times]

Plus: Mr. de Blasio today is expected to nominate Meenakshi Srinivasan, longtime head of the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals, as chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. [The Wall Street Journal]

The Cuomo administration and officials at Hudson River Park have struck a tentative deal to refurbish the rapidly crumbling Pier 40 at the foot of West Houston Street. The deal would transfer unused development rights from the 14.5-acre pier to a site across the West Side Highway in exchange for more than $100 million. [The New York Times]

Credit Suisse is expected to plead guilty to criminal charges that it helped Americans evade taxes. The bank has also tentatively agreed to pay nearly $2.5 billion to the U.S. Justice Department, the Federal Reserve and the New York State Department of Financial Services. [The Wall Street Journal]

The state Republican Party on Thursday formally nominated Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino as its gubernatorial nominee. In accepting the nomination, Mr. Astorino, who faces incumbent Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the fall, urged voters to “fight to save New York.” [The New York Times]

The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that the city’s medical residents have a right to be considered employees and therefore to join a union. Residents at Mount Sinai Beth Israel had challenged the teaching hospital, which considered them graduate students rather than employees. The ruling clears the way for a union there. [Crain’s Health Pulse]

Plus: Throwing further confusion into the bidding, a Brooklyn judge on Thursday asked three competing suitors for Long Island College Hospital to reach a settlement. [Crain’s New York Business]

Fewer public-school teachers are leaving after starting jobs in the New York City system, according to a report released Thursday by the city’s Independent Budget Office. Of the roughly 6,000 teachers hired in the 2008-09 school year, 30% left within three years. That’s down from 41% during the 2000-01 school year. [Metropolis]

Plus: The push to expand the city’s free-lunch program to cover students of all incomes has stalled under Mayor Bill de Blasio, upsetting some liberal supporters. [The Wall Street Journal]

Con Edison President Craig Ivey informed employees in a recent internal memo that the number of calls from East Harlem residents about gas odors more than doubled, compared with the same period last year, in the seven weeks after the March 12 explosion that leveled two buildings in the neighborhood, killing eight people. [The New York Times]

The Metro-North Railroad announced sweeping safety changes on Thursday, six months after a derailment in the Bronx killed four people. The reforms include auditing thousands of engineers to see if they’re speeding, reducing speeds on bridges and curves, and printing safety messages in employee newsletters rather than on-time performance statistics. [New York Post]

Plus: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has shut off the 450 emergency-door alarms in the subway near staffed token booths. [Daily News]

Casa Lever, the Italian restaurant in the Lever House office building at 390 Park Ave., has added 13 Andy Warhol portraits, including ones of Jerry Hall, Dennis Hopper and Rudolf Nureyev, to its collection of the artist’s work. The additions bring the total to 32—or more than $50 million in dining ambience. [Crain’s New York Business]